Anti inflammatory Archives - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Chili – Plant-Based Protein Cabbage Wrap

Chili made with plant-based food ingredients is a good way to add more fiber and vitamin nutrients in your diet. And it’s filled with anti-inflammatory spices that add to longevity healthy points, if that’s one of your intentional desires.

Plus it’s super easy to blend a bowl of chili together using your Magic Bullet or blender. And in this case, for cabbage wraps.

Tofu is the plant-based protein behind these chili cabbage wraps.

I grew up eating tofu regularly so I’m used to the unique texture and odd taste, but some people are not.

…And if that’s you (or who you’re preparing meals or Game Day for), a chili dish is a good way to mask tofu. Kinda like hiding veggies in kids’ dinner plates.

And chili is a great way to add in veggies like nutritious cabbage.

Besides light and good for weight loss, green cabbage is a very economical add to meals.

There are many cabbage kinds (over 400 around the world), and green cabbage is a common one, that’s easy to find in grocery stores.

It’s often confused with Iceberg lettuce that’s lighter (in weight and color). You’ll notice the difference as green cabbage gets thicker as you peel back the layers and get closer to the middle core. The ribs are more pronounced.

Also, lettuce’s season is spring and summer. Cabbage takes over in fall and winter. So you can make wraps year-round.

Both veggies are healthy, but green cabbage has more Vitamin C and fiber. It also has special antioxidants (sulforaphane). It’s in the same food family as broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.

And wrapped around as a hearty veggie, a chili cabbage wrap makes for good comfort food during cooler months. Lett-uce celebrate that!

Next time you’re out shopping for tortilla, you might reconsider. With cabbage, you also save grocery money making wraps as a head of cabbage can be under $2, and chili cans (or pinto beans) are pennies per ounce.

Yeah cabbage! 🥬 And tofu that’s easy to find can be pennies per ounce. It’s usually found in the refrigerated food sections near deli meat or dairy, or where you would find fresh hummus (that’s another great easy Game Day or Magic Bullet recipe you can make).

You can make this an entire meal for two (or a small family) for under $5!

So to make this plant-based chili wrap, cut up the tofu with a non-sharp or silicone spatula, or wooden kitchen tools. Whether you get the softer, firm, or extra firm tofu, it will be easy to break up even with your hands.

It will look like a little like white scrambled eggs. Drain and cook the tofu scramble. Usually around 15 minutes on medium stove heat. Tofu in the common containers has a watery substance (that actually can be whipped into dessert meringues like aquafaba in garbanzo bean cans).

So the tofu will be wet, and you won’t need to add much liquid in your cooking skillet if any. And no (olive) oil needed to prevent skillet sticking, unless you want to add for taste.

After the tofu is cooked, add and heat up the tomato sauce.

Add some of the tofu mixture to your blender with all the spices, other wet, and dry ingredients.

Then add the chili or beans. This is where a quick blender comes in handy. Blend in chili beans (pinto beans).

Pulse the blender a few times or just enough for the beans to blend. The tofu mixture will look grainy.

To save time: you can prepare your cabbage leaves while the tofu is cooking, and you can cook the cabbage leaves when you’re blending the tofu and chili.

For spicy flavors: you can add hot spices like cayenne or your favorite hot sauce. But if you want to keep it mild and then let the heat preference be per wrap, then add sweet or mild pimento peppers. They’re bright red and easy to find (on market shelves).

The best chili has all the tastes: spicy heat (cayenne, chili, onions, garlic, or other peppers), savory (cumin), sweet (cinnamon, tomato sauce), salty (salt), umami (soy), bitter (cocoa), astringent (turmeric), and sour tastes (vinegar, tamarind).

You can add or omit any ingredient, and if you go with a spice blend make sure it has cumin and peppers are a must if you want chili tastes.

I used cayenne pepper (hot), red chili flakes (mild) , and pimento peppers (sweet) to give a balanced heat. But even black pepper will work (and help activate the healthy turmeric and cinnamon if added).

Chili is so versatile to your preferences and what you have on hand.. so you do you! You can’t go wrong.

And if you like this healthy plant-based recipe idea, you may like other Magic Bullet recipes and anti-inflammatory plant-based soups, like low-sodium vegetable soup or beet red cabbage soup. 🥣

Tofu Scramble Chil Cabbage Wrap - Plant Based

This is a protein-rich plant-based meal. You can make at least 3 cups or 6 full wraps with this recipe.

Servings 3 cups

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp vinegar (white or apple cider)
1 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garlic flakes
1 tsp pimento peppers
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp tamarind (optional)
1 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt (for chili)
1 tsp chopped red onions
14 oz tofu container
15.5 oz can of chili or pinto beans
8 oz tomato sauce
1 green cabbage head
1/2 tsp salt (for cooking cabbage)

Instructions

On stove, cook chopped up (scrambled) tofu in a skillet (medium heat for about 15 minutes). Add water, if needed.
While tofu is cooking, prepare cabbage wraps. Pull apart cabbage and wash.
When tofu is about cooked ready, add/heat up tomato sauce and spices, and bring to a light boil. Take the tofu skillet off the stove and let cool.
On stove, cook cabbage wraps in a separate pot (or pour tofu mixture in a big bowl and rinse out skillet to add cabbage wraps). Cook cabbage in water and about 1 tsp of salt until soft. Place cover or lid over skillet or pot. Tip: You can use the entire or part of the cabbage core to weigh down the cabbage leaves in a cooking pot as they tend to float up. After cooked, to dry the cabbage, place them on paper towels that you can re-use.
In the blender, add about half-full warm tofu mixture and the remaining spices, wet, and dry ingredients. Add all the chili beans/can or until the blender is full.
Quick-pulse blend a few times. Add a little more of the tofu (chili) and shake the blender by hand or pulse blend a few times on the base, depending on the final tofu texture you want. If you shake by hand, you'll get a more crumbly tofu vs. pureed tofu from machine action.
Add blended tofu chili to individual cabbage leaves to make wraps. You can add the remaining tofu and any remaining chili to the blender. This should make 3+ cups of tofu chili that can fill at least 6 full cabbage wraps. You can save the additional cabbage for a soup or freeze for another time.

Gingerbread Cookie + Anti-Inflammatory Living

Gingerbread cookie is a non-negotiable for me. It’s a happy holiday cookie tradition.

…For you too?

My healthier (but delectable) recipe version is below (that doesn’t compromise taste!).

This is a sweet tray of puffy and light bread cookies. There are 12 regular cookie cutter size and 10 smaller ones (22 cookies total) that took 12 minutes to bake in 325°F/165°C. B-ready?

These are healthy conscious cookies that you can learn more about below.

Jump to Recipe

…Because I think healthy ingredients are delicious and belong in everything happy food made.

And the first question I ask myself is: does this recipe have any anti-inflammatory food value?

And if the recipe calls for sugar, butter, or flour, how can I get by with as little of it without compromising taste and texture?

…Especially because I discovered adult eczema in 2020, and in 2021 when I ended up in the hospital emergency room from skin inflammation, as a recurring second eczema flareup.

But before those 2 years I was already passionate about an anti-inflammatory diet for prevention reasons.

….And thankfully from health awareness and better lifestyle choices, haven’t felt the irritated skin effects since those stinging first years.

I’ve stayed food conscious and haven’t given up non-negotiable happy sweet foods… that would be a life not worth living (in my opinion).

But I’ve learned how to not tip-the-scales with food. Everything in moderation still (and even more as you age).

…And you can adopt an anti-inflammatory lifestyle if you’re wanting to optimize longevity and be more kind to the body we care for. You and I only get ONE

Reading healthy diet books is something I’ve been passionate about since I was a young adult.

Today I’ve zero’d in on a few for life…

The anti-inflammatory diet is forefront. It makes healthy sense to me and in my life where all signs pointed down that path.

I think for everyone that follows, destiny leads you down your best road.

…And after my real life eczema experience, I was convinced eating and living anti-inflammatory year-round was the #1 plan.

An anti-inflammatory diet includes plant-based foods and a lot of the same foods you’d find on a Mediterranean diet… In case you’re wondering what diets it’s kissing cousins closest to.

I like how the diet has little case “a” for “anti” as it encourages food variety choices in specific food categories. Our bodies opt for (and crave) biodiversity in our biomes.

In anti-inflammatory diets, the biggest difference is the focus is on preventing foods that cause daily inflammation.

…Like granulated sugar and gluten flours are common big offenders… and then as each person is different, there are specific individual foods you learn about with your body, as you go and test.

And as funny as life can be… of course, I turned out loving baking… and SWEETS! Challenge-ON.

And at first I learned the hard way.

Because when you’re first learning to bake, you find ingredients that work foolproof to achieve the cake or cookie you want after it comes out of the oven.

And there’s not usually an easy baking path (or many recipes out there) making treats we’ve come to love out of healthy food substitutes that taste just as good!

So then you end up with powdered sugar for icing or vegetable shortening for texture.

But I slowly learned that didn’t have to be the only way.

Like learning to ride a bicycle or ice skate…

It took time for me to tweak and test and learn what healthy and creative paired ingredients would work to not compromise textures and tastes.

Sometimes it took many fails to find wins in the oven.

And I have high sweet taste bud standards.

…’Cause I was raised on all those processed American sweets that were allowed in my weekly childhood diet.

But then daily I also learned about healthy foods from my mom’s balanced dinner plates of protein, veg, and carbs… and I kept my gourmet ox tail, squid soup delicacy, and trying persimmons at home experiences to my young self.

Because back then, no one my age wanted to stick out. And I knew my food experiences were so different than my classmates.

Especially when I had whole wheat bread sandwiches I wanted to hide on school field trips, when white bread was the glorified lunch bag sandwich.

I survived those times and forgot all about them. The were overshadowed by all the happiness I felt going to the grocery store and seeing food variety and abundance.

…Mostly the kid accepted snack kind that kept me happy for days.

…Like Twinkies, and Ho-Hos.

When I was younger, I would’ve been thrilled if you added a drip sugar IV to my veins,

Cookies especially were my weakness (and still are my faves today).

So as you’d imagine, I’ve tasted a lot of cookies in my years. And on my journey, I went in search for the least fat and sugar (healthiest) cookie! 😋

And then gradually evolved to sourcing sweet ingredients and making my own batch of cookies from scratch.

This is where a homemade gingerbread cookie is still hands-down the one that makes me the happiest with the balance of sugar and spice… and my cookie version is actually more aligned to a Chai tea spices.

…And goes great with a cup of Chai. 🫖

But it’s definitely a cookie in every sense where it has some (but a lot less) butter and sugar.

From taste and texture, you’d never know it has less sugar and less butter than most comparable cookies out there.

And that’s good (for the body’s health) because when you eat less sugar, you crave less.

Because sugar is still fact-fully known to be an addictive substance, like a drug.

Sweet addiction can come from a batch of cookies.

So often I use honey, fruit, and monk fruit that are anti-inflammatory good and work for many bakes.

But not great for a traditional gingerbread cookie.

…So cutting down the sugar and butter is the best bet… and especially if you don’t want to tip-the-inflammatory-scales.

That’s the game I play every time I eat something with sugar. And is the game that many of play to some degree without knowing it.

They’re hidden inside the body and can develop into chronic diseases like Diabetes 2 fastly on the rise.

Balancing blood sugar is at the heart of may health issues.

So every little bit of healthy effort, helps. And for building good habits. Of course the sugar compromise took experimenting with and my sweet desire switch didn’t happen overnight.

But these days, you’ll find me adding granulated sugar rarely… with a few bakes like a small brown packet for scones that makes 8 pieces. It just wouldn’t be the same crunch and joy without.

And adding 1/4 cup sugar plus some candy zhugh for a gingerbread cookie recipe this size to make a worthwhile joyful tray. 🍥

…We’re born with sweet taste buds on the front of our tongues for a reason.

But in my lessons learned, you don’t need to add powdered sugar icing that takes a high amount of sugar to make a little impact. And that adds to sugar addiction points if you’re counting.

You also only need 2 pats (2 Tbsps) of butter and NOT a whole stick for decadently good cookies!

Shifting butter also works toward a better anti-inflammatory mission.

During the year (and out of comfort food weather), I make no-butter cookies subbing in healthy oils like in a buckwheat ginger snap or a no-bake matcha cookie.

Remember “everything in moderation.”

My motto version: enjoy a sweet and then eat some carrots in between. And better yet, bake in some carrots (or your go-to list of anti-inflammatory foods) in your sweets. 🥕

When you use rainbow-healthy 🌈 ingredients that can help lower your grocery bill (I find), you can make your own food dishes and baked goods that make your mouth sing and smile.

And as win-win, you’re winning anti-inflammatory points when you partner with your body’s healthy tastes. 😊

Like when you add anti-inflammatory spices to a lower fat gingerbread cookie. 🫚🧡

Gingerbread Cookie - Low-Fat

This is a delicious gingerbread cookie that is more cake-bread-like and full of warming spices.

Servings 14 cookies

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

2-1/4 cups whole wheat and all purpose flour
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1 egg beaten
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1-1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom (optional)

Instructions

Fully combine ingredients to make cookie dough. It will look like moist cookie crumbs.
Add dough to plastic wrap and tightly wrap pace to make a rectangle.
Refrigerate for at least one hour. The longer you let the dough rest, the spices will aromatically meld in (for up to a week in the refrigerator)..
Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out cookie shapes. This will make about 14 regular sized cookies.
Preheat oven (and refrigerate cookie tray while waiting for preheated oven to heat up).
Bake on 325°F/165°F for 10-15 minutes. Cookie bottoms will have darker baked brown marks.
After cookies have cooled, you can add icing. Icing: melt white chocolate in a double broiler. To make more, add a small amount of refined coconut oil.
Smear white chocolate to tops of cookie and zhugh with decorations while the chocolate is not set.

Cranberry Pumpkin Trifle Dessert – Healthy and Easy

Cranberry pumpkin trifle is a healthy and tasty sweet treat snack that’s good for the gut where Greek yogurt is the white creaminess you can’t wait to dip your spoon in. And it’s a no-bake easy dessert (for brunch?) that you can make with 10-minute simple assembly.

This makes a great in-between dessert (amuse bouche) go-to… with sweet and sour-tart vibes infused. 🧡

This is a tasty way to keep celebrating and still enjoy food with heavy feast menu days that the holiday season is peppered with. 🎉

When I worked in catering planning, building in extra food touch point details won points with hosts and guests.

Like a special dish add or an amuse bouche (mouth amuser appetizer).

And if you’re feeding guests or hosting a party, small details like an across-the-board zhugh topping are a great way to impress them with very little work.

In an individual dessert like a cranberry pumpkin trifle, the multi-layer effect looks inviting to bite into.

The contrasting taste pairings and rainbow-y colors do the work for you.

And goes well on a food table in individual glasses … oui?

And the other reason a trifle is great is it’s just 10-minute prep work.

It can be enjoyed for no occasion at all…

Like for a great breakfast treat as a starter before your activity day, hike, or physical exercise.

Or anytime of day snack.

I like to have them ready for a Sunday brunch.

The ingredients are simple: canned pumpkin, cranberry sauce, Greek yogurt and orange zest.

And if you’re a bit like me, you want to know all the ingredients before you decide to make a recipe.

✅ You want to know if you have them on hand.

Nothing worse than getting excited about a food dish or gathering all the ingredients, and then not having a primary ingredient on hand.

✅ I also look at the ingredient list to see if they are ingredients I want to use for healthy reasons.

✅ And food ingredients that excite. 🥳

Then when all the checks are there, that’s when the prepping can begin.

The party is when it all comes together.

Success is when there’s a tasty pair duo or combo… Or in this case, it’s a pumpkin-cranberry-orange trio. 🎶

You can hand spoon layer the pump-o-cran trifle.

You can use store-bought or pre-store in freezer yogurt and oranges.

The frozen orange won’t be as vibrant fresh as fridge fresh oranges, but it could save you a trip of foraging.

Storing up can last you though the winter. That’s how we can be one with nature 🧘🏻‍♀️ and more like our foraging squirrel friends than we think. 🐿️

Both the pumpkin and cranberry are convenient cans you can store in your kitchen pantry.

It’s a myth that cranberry or pumpkin are seasonal foods. They’re available on middle aisle shelves all the time so you can get when them on sale if you want. And during the end-of-year months, it’s hard not to bump into them near end-of-aisle checkout areas.

And if you’re doing low-sugar, look for frozen whole bags of cran-berries that are wildly healthy like most berries that are full of polyphenol anti-inflammatory goodness.

You can make your own cranberry sauce. And then store the whole berries and extra sauce in your freezer.

Whole pumpkin is similar has similar healthy and easy vibes. It’s adds beta carotene and the antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E to complement an anti-inflammatory diet.

A-C-E was one of my earliest healthy food acronyms I learned that still has longevity (in A-C-E foods and my memory). 😊

And canned (pumpkin) that’s in puree versions ready-to-use is conveniently on most grocery shelves 365 days a year.

It has many healthy uses…

Like pumpkin is also great in a baking recipe. It’s my favorite Thanksgiving pie… maybe you too? And no-baking needed recipes like pumpkin mousse or chocolate trifle with pumpkin.

Year-round, I like to make easy pumpkin pasta sauce.

It’s a good alternate or change up from tomato sauce… and because tomato sauce is acidic.

If you’re trying to reduce heartburn symptoms, then that’s one easy swap you can make.

Also, pumpkin has a mildly sweet taste, pairing well with the same herbs and spices (as tomato sauce) like oregano and basil.

But I like to punch it up with pungent sage too. ⚡️

And if I’m sweet baking with pumpkin, I usually pair with ginger spice.🫚

Pumpkin sauce is also a glowing orangy-color that lights up faces. 🎃

On days you need energy, pumpkin can help you along with a bowl of pasta. And if you make your own homemade pasta (or eat egg yolks) then you’re getting B12, B6, and B2 from the egg yolk that plays well together to create food syn-energy. 🔋

Then with extra leftover pumpkin, you can see how that all comes together in this tasty cranberry pumpkin trifle dessert.

Cranberry Pumpkin Orange Trifle

Tasty and easy to make for holidays and everyday.

Author Brandy @ Health Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

thick Greek yogurt
cranberry sauce
canned pumpkin
1 orange (Navel and Cara Cara sweet oranges work well)
molasses drizzle or nuts (for additional zhugh)

Instructions

Layer pumpkin, cranberry, and yogurt. Zhugh with orange zest.
Drizzle with molasses or zhugh with chopped nuts (optional).

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie (Low-Sugar) – Gluten-Free

Oatmeal raisin cookie is one of my favorites. This one is all oats. And no flour.

Sure, you can add chocolate, but I sometimes like a pure wholesome oat-y raisin cookie (…maybe you too?) where the raisins are the stand out morsel-size ingredient.

And this gluten-free big cookie has 40 raisins. You can’t dodge ’em if you tried.

There’s a raisin reason (or raison in French) for the cookie … that makes it a good breakfast starter with healthy breakfast ingredients!

And if size matters to you…

This oatmeal raisin cookie recipe is for 6 inches across that is great on your 8 inch plates. Or take with you in your car trips when you want fewer crumbs.

It has crumbs, otherwise it wouldn’t be a satisfying cookie… but it holds together nicely.

And better than granola that’s droppable, and one jerky hairpin turn away from needing a vacuum.

You will have finished this cookie by then. 😋

Like my younger self would have. When I found the hard and crunchy store-bought ones worthy.

I thought they were the eat-as-many-as-you-like wholesome cookies. Ya know what I mean?

I was years from understanding why healthy really mattered… and knowing that a few baking minutes is all the difference between crunchy vs. soft-baked.

And not from an artfully messy table of food ingredients that I imagined.

For a Softer Cookie:

With ith the magical oven, you can make the cookie even softer if you want with a simple ingredient tweak.

If you want to make a smoother (less oatmeal bumpy) and cake-y cookie… and don’t mind the gluten, then you can add some whole wheat flour.

Or my fave way is to add buckwheat flour that’s naturally gluten-free despite “wheat” in the name.

I love an easy gluten-free buckwheat ginger cookie snap.

If you add 1/2 cup gluten flour, you can fill a 9″ pan of cookie that’ll turn out more like a cookie-cake. There will be a little rise and it’ll be softer and spongier like a cake so it’s easier to cut.

You can even cut a cool geometric star pattern shape like this gigantic chocolate oat cookie (cake?) that’s doubly starred ⭐️⭐️ with an orange star inside the kaleidoscope cut star pattern. Do you see it?

The cuts are good for tearing and sharing, and will impress most and especially science fair aged-ones.

But if you prefer a solid cookie or wouldn’t miss the raisins, you can try this low-sugar oatmeal chocolate chip cookie that looks a lot like the signature C.C. cookie 🍪 I sat next to when I was a Doubletree Hotel catering manager.

But the baking recipe I share is without any of the sticks of butt-ah that made it paperweight heavy.

And now that we have all the cookies out of the bag, the ingredient that ties all the cookies together is the oats.

With all the grocery variety shelf options these modern days, old-fashioned oats are the best value… they cost minimal and are minimal processed (vs. instant oats). And wherever you shop, it’s usually next to the 1-minute oats.

The slow oats are the better option. And since you’re baking them and not making oatmeal, they’re time-less.

The magical oven will work out that cooking time process.

…Maybe why oatmeal is part of the famous oatmeal raisin cookie’s name.

And while oats bind the cookies together, what makes this oa-tea cookie recipe a special-tea is the Earl Grey tea choice added to the cookie batter.

The tea is good for a couple reasons (or raisins 😊). Earl Grey is a brisk bergamot black tea that can be strong. And maybe why it’s U.K.’s traditional tea. 🇬🇧

And I’ve been adding raisins to drinking Early Grey that gives it a bergamot forward citrus flavor. Earl Grey is good for breakfast or an afternoon tea. And a perfect cookie pair fit where you can do tastings with different cookies like starting with an oatmeal raisin cookie. You could try a holiday lemon cookie.

Early Grey is versatile, but had ladylike (adult) tastes. Like other black teas, it’s usually sweeter (vs. green tea = bitter). And raisins mellow out all those tastes and flavors for a smoother drinking ride.

The tea also plumps up the raisins. And you could plump up raisins in your enhanced puffery oatmeal raisin cookie if you pre-soak them in brewed tea before you add to your cookie batter.

But if you don’t have Earl Grey tea on hand, for cookie batter, you can sub with/use milk , coffee, or any liquid as substitution.

No need for a panic store run. You can get creative and use the same Dry January warm beverage you’re also brewing and drinking on hand. If it’s good as a drink, it’ll be better in a cookie! 🍪

How easy… as promised for this One-Bowl oatmeal raisin cookie.

And if you’re wondering if this cookie will be sweet enough (as it calls for no table sugar like most cookies), you can add healthier natural sweetness that come straight from the source like maple syrup or honey.

If you’re feeling Pitta (e.g. signs of feeling irritated, have warm skin to the touch, or breaking out signs) maple syrup will help you out as it’s a cooling ingredient. Fitting why it’s a staple up north. 🇨🇦

So now you have an American oatmeal raisin cookie with English-speaking cousin country ingredients.

And if you’re feeling cool, you may want a warmer ingredient.

Sinus-congested Kaphas can use honey in your cookie batter. Raw honey helps to loosen up the gunk and if you’re feeling slow going.🫖

Plus a dry oatmeal raisin will be good for drying out Kaphas that tend to have moist skin.

And with all the mouthful deets, I think you’re ready to make this ready-to-be-eaten cookie.

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookie (One-Bowl Easy)

This is an easy cookie to bake that always pleases for any occasion!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

2/3 cup ground oats
1 Tbsp maple syrup (or honey)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tbsp yogurt
1/8 cup Earl Grey tea
2 Tbsp raisins (or 40 raisins)
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
pinch of salt

Instructions

Spray your baking pan with baking spray or brush light olive oil. You can use your round cake pans.
Make the one-bowl cookie batter: Combine ingredients with a silverware spoon but reserve the Earl Grey tea and raisins.
Optional: brew your Earl Grey tea and add the raisins to the warm tea. This will help plump raisins up. You can do for some, all, or none. And then add the tea and about 3/4 of the raisins (30 raisins/1.5 Tbsp) to the cookie batter.
Shape your cookie with your spoon and a knife or offset spatula is helpful. This makes one 6 inch cookie or a few smaller cookies.
Add the remaining raisins on top so they're visible.
Bake at 350°F/180°C for 25-30 minutes for soft-crispy cookie doneness preference. Enjoy!

Turmeric Soup – Anti-Inflammatory

Turmeric soup is one anti-inflammatory soup that’s so easy to make. All you need is water and turmeric spice. But you can add so much more (see below)! And it’ll be comforting for fall and holidays… and healthy.

Add rice for texture substance that adds nutrients and is hearty filling.

Brown rice and wild grain rice are whole foods great on an anti-inflammatory diet because they’re less processed.

The rice bran and germ are kept intact where additional B-vitamins are.

You can add your protein choice, and include 15-beans for one potent protein bowl. You can also make a Magic Bullet dip with the beans.

In the bean mix, some are actually legumes and not beans.

Just remember, all beans are legumes, but not all legumes are beans.

Remember those school grammar lessons?

How fun to practice on peas (that are legumes) with fruits in pods (or seeds). 🫛 And lentils and peanuts are also legumes (not beans!).

Lentils are easy to point to by their half shapes.

And not to get too technical, but a chick pea is a bean: a chic garbanzo bean.

But you already knew that!

And all these are in your 15-bean (or 16-bean) packages. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a 33-bean one as there are hundred of beans in the world and some even say like 40 thousand that’s surprising to hear!

The list is long, and from that lens short on a 15-bean bag.

If you read the label, actually you’ll notice there are more than 15 named, but actual only 3 lines long: northern, pinto, large lima, yelloweye, garbanzo, baby lima, green split pea, kidney, cranberry, small white, pink, small red, yellow split pea, lentil, navy, black, and white kidney. They sound like organs or colors on a college jacket.

Did you find the ones that are non-beans?

And since we’ve gotten technical, there are more than 15 listed (there are 17 if you’re counting). This has to do with variety. But from school-me class 😊, we just learned that some legumes are not beans, so maybe it should be called 17 legumes soup? 💭 …Not as catchy though.

And would make a great school project. And if you want to give a school grader a project, have them separate the types.

Either way, it’s a great lesson in food variety and would make for nice art work in a bowl. 🥣

One that I do is turn it into a turmeric bean soup.

To make this:

Soak the beans in room temperature water in a bowl covered overnight so they expand and soften.

Then cook the 15-beans on medium heat until soft. This usually takes over an hour. If you want to lean into the smoky tastes, you can let the water run out on the beans. Then add back before it blackens.

You’ll get a nice smoky aroma and taste that makes it very warming and inviting. This is a great fall soup. The colors look like leaves turning and it’s comforting.

Then turn your soup into an easy Magic Bullet dip.

Comment below what are your fave ways to add turmeric. 🧡

Personally, I can’t douse enough of the anti-inflammatory turmeric on my savory foods.

…On my longevity mission and hundreds of up and down hill mountain hiking miles, I’ve crossed over many stones (some big boulders) and that adds to harsh knee impact. Adding turmeric to my diet, I’ve found those pains have subsided. Turning the stones in life to healing is victory in my book.

Turmeric Soup made at home with just turmeric and water for the base.

Anti-Inflammatory Turmeric Soup

This is a simple and anti-inflammatory soup that you can make delicious and bottomless enjoy.

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 tbsp turmeric spice
16 oz water
15-beans (optional)
cooked rice
Brussel sprouts (and/or veggies of choice)
spices (black pepper)

Instructions

Add turmeric to pot of heating water on the stove.
Add cooked beans, spices, cooked rice, and veggies to pot.